Adventures in Renovations 

One of the advantages about buying the place where we already lived is that we wouldn’t have to move. At least you’d think that, right? The only thing that would change is who got the rent money at the end of the month and we wouldn’t have to ask permission if we wanted to change something or get a cat (which we did: Hi Duke!)

Except… except when you own the place, all of a sudden, all of the things you’d been complaining about during your years of renting were now under your control. You could, for example, take down and get rid of the dirty, broken window shades. Or toss away the shelves you didn’t like. 

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Saying goodbye to 2023

Well, here we are, the last day of the year, and I’m trying to write an end of year wrap-up. So far it’s not going well. I’ve started a few times and it’s just not coming to me. Which may be part of the problem. It seems that in the last few years, I’ve forgotten how to write. I can sum up adventures, sure, and I’ve had a few this year, but writing anything with substance, like fiction or even this introspective wrap-up of what happened in the past 12 months is just a bit blocked. 

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Comic Con Baltics – 2023 Edition

Back in January, when I was in London with Lin, we were lucky enough to attend an after-show party of Mother Goose, the Panto with Ian McKellan. It was a ton of fun and on the way home, Lin asked me if I didn’t miss it. I replied that I did, but I really didn’t want to go back to it full-time. It was fine to enjoy it piecemeal, every now and again.

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September

It’s been a helluva month. When August ended, we literally had no idea what was coming next. Seriously. Waking up on the morning of August 31, we really didn’t know what the future was going to hold for us. All we knew for sure was that Rasa had her PhD defense coming up on the 21st of September, and that was causing enough stress on its own.

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Šventoji – Summer 2023 – Part 2

Wednesday – July 19

We slept late (well, later than we usually slept) and made our way down to the included breakfast buffet, which was only available from 9-11am. It was typical fare, except they had bacon, which Monki has recently discovered, so she was rather excited to pile it high on her plate. They also had smoked bacon, which I was sure was raw, but Rasa insisted it wasn’t. It still took me two days to try it. 

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Šventoji – Summer 2023 – Part 1

We needed a vacation, this much was certain. So far, we’d been having a summer of uncertainties. We had been looking for a place to buy, but prices were soaring, way above what they should have been, so we were stuck in a holding pattern there. Rasa was working on finishing the details for her defense of her dissertation and Monki had graduated from first grade, but now we were looking at different summer camps and things for her to keep her occupied for the summer.

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January 2023 Part Five (Jan 24-Jan27)

January 24 – New and Old things, New and Old Friends…

We got up late on Tuesday morning, but that was okay, we were already sorted for theatre for the evening – but more on that in a minute. Needing sustenance, Lin suggested a place called “Today Bread” for our morning’s brunch (yes, we’d gotten up that late!). To be fair, this wasn’t generally my kind of place. This is the kind of place where everything is produced on the premises and it felt a bit “hipsterish” for me upon entering, but hey, I’ll give anything a shot (remember my “capacity to enjoy absolutely everything”).

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January 2023 Part Four (Jan 21-Jan 23)

January 21 – Once more unto the Breach

Weirdly, in past times, this is where my trip would start. I would arrive in London for a week of theatre and museums and being able to understand what I overhear on public transport and in coffee shops. This time, I had two weeks of travel behind me so I felt like I was at a slight disadvantage energy-wise.

Lin, however, was not to be deterred!

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January 2023 Part Three (Jan 16-Jan 18)

January 16 – Magic!

To be perfectly honest, today was one of the big highlights of the trip, something I had been looking forward to with much anticipation. Today was the day Troy was coming to get me and we were going to Disneyland!

We’d discussed this over the past few months, me explaining I really wanted to see Star Wars and Avengers stuff and anything else would be a bonus. He agreed. We decided on getting a 1-day, park hopper pass (the two things were in different parks) and then we figured that the 17th of January, the day after the MLK holiday, would be ideal (and also, the least expensive) day to go.

Of course, once we knew the dates, I contacted a few friends to see if there was anything else we could do. For example, Troy had never been to the Magic Castle, so I called my friend Michael, who’s a member, and asked if he was free to join us. He was. So we made plans.

And now the day was finally here!

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January 2023 Part Two (Jan 10-Jan 15)

January 10 – It all disappears… like Vegas in the rain…

Tuesday morning I woke up early and started making myself breakfast before I ventured outside. Good thing, too, since the alarm was on and even though the folks had left me a note with the code on it, I didn’t see it (and even if I had, I had no idea how to use the alarm system. So, thankfully, mom got up, helped me find the various things I needed to finish making my eggs and coffee and then showed me how to turn off the alarm so I could venture out back to get started with what was my main purpose for this trip.

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January 2023 Part One (Jan 6-Jan 9)

For the start of this story, we need to step into the “way back machine” all the way to 2010. Back then, due to circumstances, I had been applying for jobs in Europe. One of the gigs I applied to was teaching English to kids in Hungary. I got the job and the deal was I had a one-year contract with a mutually agreed upon possibility of a 1 year extension.

So in the late summer of 2010, I packed up most of my worldly belongings, shoved them into a storage shed (originally a pay as you go deal and then in my folks’ backyard) and headed off into parts unknown.

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The Coming of the Tree

It started a couple of days ago.

Even though we’re non-religious, Rasa loves the Christmas season. She loves decorating the house and putting up the tree and doing all the stuff associated with the holiday. At least the non-secular version. To be fair, when I was a kid, I really loved going to friends’ houses to help them decorate their trees. It’s a great family thing.

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